Get help after someone dies
If you have recently lost someone, there are places you can go for practical and emotional support:
- Victim Support
- ACC
- Work and Income
- Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ)
- Births, Deaths & Marriages (Department of Internal Affairs)
- Skylight
- SANDS – Stillbirth and Newborn Death Support
- SIDS and Kids
- Hāpai Te Hauora Māori Public Health
- Whetūrangitia
Victim Support
Victim Support provides 24-hour practical and emotional support, personal advocacy and information to all New Zealanders affected by crime and trauma.
- Victims Support website(external link)
- phone your local police station and ask for Victim Support
- phone 0800 VICTIM (0800 842 846)
ACC
If you have lost a family member because of an injury, ACC may be able to help financially, such as with a funeral grant, a survivor's grant, childcare payments and weekly compensation.
- ACC: Financial support if someone has died(external link)
- This booklet is available in other languages on the ACC website(external link)
Work and Income
Work and Income may be able to help you financially.
The partner, child, parent or guardian of someone who has died may be able to get a grant to help pay for of the funeral. A funeral grant is income and asset tested.
- Work and income website(external link)
- 0800 559 009
Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ)
Most funeral directing companies belong to FDANZ. Its members arrange and direct more than 80 percent of New Zealand funerals.
Births, Deaths & Marriages
Anyone can organise a burial or cremation.
- Find out more about what to do when someone dies(external link)
- Te Hokinga a Wairua - End of Life Service(external link)
- myTrove(external link)
Skylight
Skylight helps children, young people and their families/whānau through tough times of change, loss, trauma and grief, whatever the cause and wherever they live in New Zealand. It also helps the individuals and professionals supporting them.
It offers helpful information, specialist resources and training. In the Wellington region it offers child and teen support groups and counselling.
- Skylight website(external link)
- 0800 299 100
SANDS – Stillbirth and Newborn Death Support
Groups of parents around the country help care for other bereaved parents, whānau and friends. They promote understanding and support for people dealing with all kinds of reproductive loss, such as miscarriage, and the death soon after birth or from medical termination.
SIDS and Kids
SIDS and Kids is a national organisation providing services for families and communities who have had children die suddenly and/or unexpectedly of any cause, including sudden infant death syndrome.
- SIDS and Kids website(external link)
- info@sids.org.nz
- 0800 164 455 (open 24 hours)
Hāpai Te Hauora Māori Public Health
Hāpai is responsible for coordinating a national, integrated approach to SUDI prevention in Aotearoa. Our whakapapa as a Māori public health organisation over 20 years drives our philosophy which places health and wellbeing of tamariki mokopuna and whānau at the centre of everything we do.
Whetūrangitia
Whetūrangitia means “stars that adorn the sky”. It is a joint initiative between partner agencies and NGOs to support families and whanau affected by the sudden death of an infant or child.
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